life

I ♥ NYC.

4 Comments

When I was 7, my mom won a trip to New York City over Thanksgiving. We stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria (in the smallest room known to man), saw some Broadway shows and ventured out to watch the parade. My parents let me walk in front of them because they said I was good at parting the crowds. I just held my hands out in front of me, clapsed together like a rudder, and weaved through the sea of people. (Hey, I was 7.)

In middle school, my mom, grandmother and I flew up for one-day shopping trips during Christmas season. (My mom scared an elderly Asian lady in Macy’s when she put her arm around her from behind, thinking she was my grandmother. Oh, how we’ve laughed about that over the years.)

When I was in college, my dad and I spent fall break in New York, just walking around the streets and hitting all the tourist sites. We climbed the Statue of Liberty, where I had a heights-related panic attack on the spiral stairs, and took a photo at the top of the World Trade Center (freezing, since it was October). I remember feeling so let down coming back to my dorm room that night after I’d spent the morning walking in Central Park. Keep reading »

Lamentations.

3 Comments

It’s been a terribly hard few days on the job, driving me nearly to tears with frustration. And I’m not a crier. I’m trying to take solace in the fact that it’s a paycheck, not a life’s work, and my life is full in other areas. Hey, it’s not even the first time I’ve faced hardships here, so if I didn’t walk out then, I probably won’t now either. Mortgage to pay, and all that. It’s just depressing when the place you have to be for 40+ hours of your week crushes and demeans your soul.

Outside of work, I’m constantly pulled in 14 directions, and I’m afraid I’m failing on all counts. I’m a bad friend/daughter/loved one/employee/student/member/blogger/person right now, and I offer you all an apology for that. I started this blog as a creative outlet, but I feel like everything I have to say is a downer. (Kind of like this post.)

Don’t worry, I’ve had really fun visits from friends in the past week, which have been like rays of sunshine amidst the monotony. I know it will improve, somehow, some way, since I know who’s in charge, and that karma’s a bitch.

But I didn’t need any more stressers in my life; I have enough “character building” on my plate right now, thanks. If the posts are few and far between, that’s why — as my mom told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Probably good advice.

Lay your hands on me.

1 Comment

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Around the end of the summer, I was feeling the strain of too much school and schedule. So in a moment of rash decision-making I joined a massage clinic. Now I’m a card-carrying member, signed up for massages once a month at least.

Everyone thinks of massage as a luxury, not as part of your regular health routine, like exercise, eating well and going to the dentist. But it is. Outside of the general stress relief and relaxation, massages (and acupuncture) are great for sleep problems, anxiety, depression, poor circulation, a weak immune system, etc. Check, check and check. They’ve been practiced for centuries, but once some capitalist figured out how to charge a lot for them, suddenly they’re an elite “treat.” That’s too bad. Keep reading »

Obsessions: Google Reader

Leave a comment

Here’s what I’m obsessed with this week:

Google Reader.

It’s not a new obsession, but it’s one of which I’ve been especially appreciative this week.

Last fall, I discovered Pioneer Woman on a coworker’s recommendation. I read most of the site in about a week (not much work was done, as you can imagine). But I found it hard to keep up with visiting her site via bookmark every day. I was missing very important, life-changing, world-altering updates! Well, not really. Mostly I was missing out on some really good prize giveaways.

Keep reading »

Lights, cameras, fashion.

Leave a comment

Belk’s in Charlotte had a big weekend.

Jessica Simpson was in town on Saturday promoting … something … with her boyfriend, and the paparazzi photos made national entertainment news. Yes, paparazzi! In Charlotte! Not following Fantasia!

Last night I went to the JLC‘s Lights! Camera! Fashion! show, also at Belk’s. It was a great event, very well done. Especially since the fashion show opened with the drumline from Johnson C. Smith University — and drumlines are like my favorite thing ever. The fashion was also interesting … it seems that there is going to be a lot of military-inspired sportswear, with heavy combat boots, and orange, lots of orange, this fall.

As if I needed reminding, I hate everything in my closet.

Connection in an isolating age.

1 Comment

I was talking with a friend this weekend about something that happened to her weeks ago, but I didn’t know about it. She responded, “Oh, you didn’t see it on Facebook?”

Nope.

I’ve been pulling back from the book of faces recently, only because I’m realizing it’s not real life. There are so many ways to get your feelings hurt, and it’s not rooted in any sort of reality. (Back in June, the NY Times discussed this: “An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness“) We’ve stopped communicating our major life events in person, over the phone — even over email — and we just put it up for our sister’s husband’s third grade next door neighbor to read.

Keep reading »

Many thanks.

Leave a comment

You’ve made this a pretty easy transition into the blogosphere, and I so appreciate your supportive, encouraging emails and comments. Even though I thought I’d have no time to blog, I’ve probably blogged a bit too much! I’ll calm down, I promise.

Here’s an interesting update on my “signs” post from Friday. I came home from work on Friday eve and skimmed my People magazine. In the book section, they do a “What They’re Reading” feature with celebrities.

Keep reading »

An anniversary.

3 Comments

Nine years today. Gosh. That’s almost a full decade! And even so, I don’t think I’ve fully processed that day, how it changed the city and our whole country, the world. But I won’t go on and on about it. You know.

I took a writing seminar this summer on memoir. I’ve always liked family stories, and I haven’t taken a true writing class since I was 12. I thought it would push me but also give me some structure on how to put personal stories together into some sort of narrative. In class, our moderator would read a poem or story and ask us to choose a phrase from it that spoke to us. Then we’d have 10 minutes to write, in longhand, without stopping. She stressed the not stopping – even if you had to write, “This is stupid and I have nothing to say and I can’t think of anything and I hate this class,” etc. for the full time. She assured us that eventually the exercise would take us somewhere surprising.

Indeed.

Keep reading »

Back to the grind.

Leave a comment

I started school this week. Ugh. For those of you keeping track, that’s six semesters down, four (?) to go.

As you can see in my previous post, I made good use of my summer vacation, though I lost that extra week in a jet-lag fog. I wasn’t ready at all to go back, but my first class this semester wasn’t such a slap in the face as most. The term is still young, though.

I’ll be struggling through finance this time, and we all know I haven’t a head for numbers. It will be quite interesting … so friends and family should beware my mental state during all interactions. My friend A is determined to implement a post-class drinking club once a week, so that should soften the blow.

Keep reading »

Dipping a toe.

Leave a comment

I’ve started a blog.

I really never thought I’d say that. I’ve been very anti-blog for a long time, considering it a quite self-indulgent exercise and pretty narcissistic to think anyone cares what I’d have to say.

But then I took a class this summer called “Creative Connections,” which allowed – even encouraged – me to explore different creative outlets. Our first class was a writing workshop that made me write something different than a news article or a press release for the first time in, oh, 15 years. I took more writing classes, and read books by writers about their craft. Both Anne Lamott and Brenda Ueland told me it was necessary … if it’s in me, I need to write, and what I have to say really is unique and interesting. Heck, everyone has something unique and interesting to say.

Okay,  okay.

Keep reading »